What Is A Psychological Autopsy?

A psychological autopsy is a forensic technique that aims to establish and specify the causes of a suicide. In some cases, experts use it to confirm whether a person’s death was actually due to suicide. However, it is a relatively new field that has only recently begun to be used systematically in the 21st century.

The term psychological autopsy was first used in the 1950s in the works of Shneidman and Farberow. Edwin S. Shneidman was an American clinical psychologist who studied suicide and thanatology. Together with Norman Farberow and Robert Litman, he founded the Center for Suicide Prevention in Los Angeles in 1958.

However, the concept of a psychological autopsy has been hinted at in the United States around the 1920s. After the era known as the Depression, there was a wave of suicides in the country. This form of epidemic attracted the attention of many researchers, and they tried to find common denominators. However, it was not until Shneidman and Farberow that they consolidated the concept.

Psychological autopsy

What experts perform in a psychological autopsy is an indirect and retrospective reconstruction of the life and personality of the person who died. It is an investigative process that seeks to establish the circumstances and causes that lead to a person committing suicide.

In general, it has two main goals. The first is forensic; the other is epidemiological. A psychological autopsy is ordered as part of a criminal investigation and is a tool to complement the forensic autopsy. Experts almost always use it in cases where the cause of death is doubtful.

From an epidemiological standpoint, this tool aims to gather relevant information to establish expressions of behavior, circumstances, and motivations, etc. All of this information should help establish common risk factors, with the goal of preventing or avoiding multiple suicides.

Although done on a much smaller scale, this is also used for other things, such as establishing legal validity for actions performed before death, such as signing documents. 

Other uses include assessing whether errors have occurred in the practices of people who have undergone medical or psychological treatment, to structure psychological profiles, or to construct criminological categories.

Research tools

This type of autopsy uses three main tools: examination of the crime scene, collection of psychological fingerprints and interrogation of people who were close to the victim. 

• Investigation of the crime scene provides important clues about the whole case. The chosen method, the arrangement of objects around the body, and other similar elements can provide valuable information.
• Collecting psychological fingerprints involves collecting letters, messages, diaries and other documents or information that can help either establish a psychological profile of the victim or clarify the circumstances surrounding the death.
• Interrogation of people who were close to the victim also works by gathering information about the personality or motivation behind the suicide. This is one of the more controversial procedures in psychological autopsy, and it is very difficult to establish various possible factors behind the suicide.

The protocols

There are a number of protocols involved in performing a psychological autopsy. One of the most common, however, is the MAPI model, created by Dr. Teresita García Pérez. She is a Cuban doctor, and her methods have proven to be very practical and functional. The word MAPI refers to the four basic aspects that experts look at. These are the following:

• M – mental. In this step, they analyze skills and cognitive abilities, such as judgment, cognition, intelligence, memory and attention.
• A – affective. Here, experts will look for signs of possible affective disorders, such as depression.
• P – psychosocial. This aspect examines the victim’s circle of friends throughout their lives.
• I – interpersonal  (interpersonal). In this last part, they establish how the person used to relate to their immediate surroundings.

The protocol indicates that the first thing to do is to work on the site of the death. There you can look for psychological fingerprints, signs and indications of the circumstances surrounding the suicide.

After this, investigators conduct structured interrogations with three people who were close to the victim, where they use 60 different aspects or factors. These interrogations take place between one to six months after the death.

Finally, an interdisciplinary analysis is performed, with the psychologist, the doctor and at least one criminologist. An expert will then summarize the report, which is of a probable nature. In this report, they will establish the cause of death, based on the NASH Code: Natural, Accidental, Suicide or Homicide, and then record the possible causes of death.